Chen Lu: just want to have a cafe

About Chen Lu's record of Xu Conglin

"it seems that every woman wants to open a cafe at some point in her life, if not most of them," Feng said. " Chen Lu, a post-90s Quzhou girl, realized this idea and opened her own coffee shop.

In the inconspicuous small storefront, there is the aroma of coffee and cake, soft music and quiet small book bar. Chen Lu makes coffee for friends who come and go, meets different familiar and strange people, and then talks about their dreams.

Experience the taste of life and realize the true meaning of life. Here, you can feel the unusual mental journey of ordinary people and explore the truest, best, and most beautiful side of human nature; here, you can walk into the life stories of different people and savor their joys and sorrows; here, you can touch everyone's softest heart and brush off the dust of the restless society.

If you have a lot of things to say, and if you want to spit it out, you can contact us.

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Find my "Sky City"

In 2012, I, who majored in Japanese, became a quotation worker in a Japanese company. My job was stable, but I didn't like it very much: after work, I started waiting for lunch, thinking about what to eat for lunch, waiting for work after lunch.

During that time, Douban's "Cat Sky City" small station became a warm place for my heart. When I was at school, I followed this bookstore chain, which sells niche books, handmade milk tea, coffee and desserts, and groceries that reveal originality. I was deeply moved by the management idea that "a bookstore warms a city".

"people who work in Maokong must be very happy, right?" I muttered to the job advertisement hanging on the small station. A month and a half later, I chose to resign. "if I'm asked to give up what I like and do something I don't like, I may waste my whole life." Withstanding my parents' opposition, I dragged my suitcase to Suzhou alone and pushed open the door of the main store of "Cat's Sky City" with the mood of burning my bridges.

In the traditional values, the technical content of the service industry is low, and the wage is also low. The fact seems to be the same. After I joined the job, I started to run errands. Every day before business, I have to finish making black tea, cleaning, tidying up books and so on. The number of customers in the main store remains high every day, and I have to check and clean the bathroom once an hour. I stood for eight hours on the first day of work, and as soon as I got back to the dorm, I just collapsed on the cot.

However, I quickly got used to the tedious and busy work and got used to the 5-minute "battle meal". My eating speed didn't slow down until I left the main store for a long time. At that time, the body was very tired, but the mood was very relaxed. After closing at night, looking at the empty street, a little light came into my eyes. At that time, I was infatuated with the Japanese TV series late Night Canteen, and I often couldn't help thinking: like the warm uncle with a scar on his face, I wanted to have my own shop, build my own "city of the sky", live the life I wanted to live, and get in touch with all kinds of interesting souls.

Looking back now, I can see that my wish at that time has come true. Perhaps at different stages of life, we should have different wishes to support us to move forward without looking back.

Learn how to run a store

In Maokong's one-week closed-end training, I first learned the charm of coffee, but it was not a pleasure at first. In order to quickly master the skills of taste recognition, I drink more than a dozen cups of coffee a day. Coffee stimulates the central nervous system, although I pour a lot of boiled water, after each training, I still tremble and my heart beats violently after exercise collapse.

"every cup of coffee you make is different." At first, I didn't understand what the teacher said. Maokong only sells espresso. Since it's all espresso, what's the difference?

Until contact with the World Barista Competition (WBC). That year, "Maokong" shop assistants participated in the competition, which required contestants to show the rich flavor and changes in coffee cups through precise operation. As a volunteer sparring partner, I have to give suggestions and comments after watching the production process and tasting the coffee. In the passionate background music, the seniors' every move is on the beat, flowing freely. With a cup of fragrant coffee in front of me, I suddenly realized that making a cup of coffee can also be full of ritual, like an artistic performance.

As soon as I became obsessed with coffee brewing, I was transferred to a new branch in Songjiang District, Shanghai. The store lasted only ten and a half months because of low passenger traffic, and I was the only clerk present from the opening day to the closing day. As soon as I returned to Suzhou, I was dealt a head-on blow. The manager of the poisonous tongue took a sip of the coffee I made and said with a smile, "Ah, Chen Lu, is your coffee also called coffee?"

I was surprised to find that my trip to Shanghai had grown so slowly that I had been left far behind. Keeping that joke in mind, I practiced hard in the following days and finally made coffee to the satisfaction of the manager. Before I had time to be happy, I was informed that the headquarters decided to send me to Yunnan as the store manager.

"can I really do that?" With panic and bewilderment, I stand on the land south of colorful clouds. Before I could catch my breath, I began to run around for the branch certificate when I could not communicate well with the local people. April was the dry season in Yunnan. I had altitude sickness. I had a nosebleed every day and was reluctant to spend money on hitchhiking, so I had to travel on foot or by bike.

Every time Maokong enters a city, it launches a hand-drawn map. In order to verify the designer's work, I, as a stranger, followed the navigation through the streets. On one occasion, I was even taken to a remote hill. after looking at the sky, I helped the bushes to climb down the hill.

The distance of 20 or 30 kilometers a day makes me lose more than ten jin. But when I was under great pressure, I still went jogging like Haruki Murakami. While running, I thought, my ability to deal with strange things has improved, and I have made a lot of friends who eat barbecue and tell jokes around the fire pond. More importantly, I went through a complete process of growing up and learned how to manage a store.

The aroma from the scalding cup is the smell of liberation.

Yunnan's high altitude and volcanic soil have cultivated the largest number and best quality of small coffee beans in China. Here, I met Meizi, a girl who runs a coffee shop. Hearing that my opponent was interested in making coffee, she closed the door handsomely and took me to the local coffee tree plantation.

Did you know that agate coffee fruit is sweet? Did you know that pure white coffee flowers smell like jasmine? Do you know how many hurdles it takes for a coffee bean from peeling to being milled? In retrospect, when I stepped into the manor, I really stepped into the world of coffee step by step.

The taste of a cup of coffee may be determined by the way the beans are shelled. Sun-shelled, coffee beans are rich in aroma, but may be mixed with miscellaneous odors; washed and shelled, coffee beans smell clean, but may lose some flavor; honey treatment, similar to fermentation, is the case of the famous Kopi Luwak, the resulting coffee has a different taste, but the price is better than gold. The shelled coffee beans have to be roasted to extract aroma, acidity, mellowness and flavor, which can be divided into light baking, deep baking and medium baking.

In 2016, I went back to Quzhou to open my own coffee shop.

The high heat during roasting can trigger complex chemical reactions in coffee beans, which are subtle and unstable. Too much water, light, heat and oxygen can damage it, and I have to be careful to keep the balance. After proper roasting, each coffee bean can release a unique flavor. I record every baking process and keep exploring, like a combination of passwords to open a new world.

In 1530, the world's first coffee shop was born in Constantinople, Turkey. It soon became the center of social and literary creation at that time. The original intention of choosing to go home to build a cafe is to hope that more people in Quzhou will taste the taste I want to convey. One side of water and soil raises one side of people, one side of soil and water also raises a side of beans. For example, Asian coffee beans have a deep flavor and strong taste; Central American coffee beans are more balanced, moderately sour and mellow; African beans have a unique aroma with charming acidity. A coffee bean contains a world.

The aroma from the scalding cup is the smell of liberation, and I want the senses of this city to welcome new adventures.

Chen Lu is making a cup of coffee carefully.